Organized Crime and Coruption Project

Prosecutors in Hungary have concluded an investigation into allegations of corruption in the Hungarian oil and gas group MOL, saying neither the company nor its executives committed any crimes but investigation in Croatia continues.

“...No crime was committed in the interests of MOL, by its executives, therefore, we ended the investigation due to a lack of criminal actions,” the prosecution said in a statement released Monday.

The investigation in Hungary began after former Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader was accused of accepting a bribe from MOL in 2008 in exchange for making the oil and gas company a dominant shareholder in Croatia’s INA oil and gas firm.  Croatian prosecutors approached Hungarian officials in June asking to question MOL’s chairman about the role of two Cyprus-based firms that paid Sanader €10 million.

MOL currently owns 47.46 percent of INA while the Croatian government owns 44.84 percent.  The company’s relationship to the Croatian government was strained after MOL tried to become a majority shareholder last year.

Croatian prosecutors say Sanader accepted a bribe of €10 million (US$13.1 million) from MOL.  The prosecution also gave documents to Hungary that they said names a “high ranking MOL official” as part of the scandal.

The prosecution in Hungary said it could end to the bribery investigation into an “unidentified person, because it found no evidence that MOL was involved in the case.

Croatian media name MOL executive chairman Zsolt Hernadi as that unidentified person but both MOL and Sanader deny all allegations of wrongdoing.

The two Cyprus-registered firms that supposedly paid the bribe are not involved in MOL’s business interests but rather belong to a ‘major Russian investor,’ according to the statement.  The Hungarian officials did not name any Russian company.

Sanader is facing two other unrelated high-level corruption charges before the Croatian court.